Language Learning and Translation Blog

What a difference a year makes: 2016 GOALS REVISITED!

I can’t believe that we’re at the end of 2016 already! After what has been a very difficult year for me personally, I’m pleased that I’ve managed to come out the other side, and am looking at a completely new year, with more language and translation goals for 2017!

Since I didn’t get round to posting My Language Learning Goals for 2016 until February, I’ve not had exactly 12 months to work on them. But I thought it’d be useful to go through my goals from 2016 and see my progress.

AIM NUMBER ONE: CONTINUE PRACTICING GERMAN Yes and No. I definitely practised my German in some ways – my internship over the summer, helping out the German exchange students – I definitely did NOT read four books in German, although I ordered at least 7 over the course of this year. For a long part of year, I didn’t read much recreationally at all so that certainly didn’t help. But since I’ve been back at uni, I’ve been reading German more regularly. And I did watch a LOT of German YouTube channels this year. So it’s not been a complete failure. GRADE: B -MUST DO BETTER

AIM NUMBER TWO: LEARN SPANISH – successfully competed my GCSE in Spanish! This was more of a professional ‘must-do’ goal rather than a fun goal. But I’m pleased that I finished and got a great grade! I now have my certificate from AQA to prove it. Hopefully next year I can maybe start some further qualifications in Spanish if I have the time. GRADE: A* – ONWARDS AND UPWARDS

AIM NUMBER THREE: LEARN A NEW LANGUAGE – some language learning did go on, but not consistently, especially when the Spanish revision took over. Have learnt a good amount of Dutch and refreshed some French. Think that I will try and keep these two on into 2017. GRADE: C-PLAN MY TIME BETTER

AIM NUMBER FOUR: TRANSLATION AND NETWORKING – Probably my most successfully completed aim. whilst I didn’t have time to attend any actual translation events, I have worked on building my profile online – LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and have (finally!) written a CV and signed up as a Student Affiliate of the Chartered Institute of Linguists.

Last but not least, my aim has been to blog more regularly and hopefully, somewhere in the world, help other fledgling linguists and translators through what I’ve learned/ am learning. This year I made made over 30 posts, and I hope to go on to write even more in 2017.

I would like to say a huge ‘THAK YOU’ to every one of the 500+ visitors for over 48 countries that have visited my blog this year. When I started writing posts in 2015, I wondered if anyone would ever read anything I wrote. I was, and still am, very grateful to every person who visits my blog, reads or likes my posts, leaves a comment or retweets my articles of all the social media platforms.

Soon I’ll be publishing my post on my aims for 2017 – of which I’m sure there will be quite a few!

All that is left for me to say is another ‘THANK YOU’ who has joined my on my translation journey this year. I hope that you all have a great New Year and I hope to see you all again in 2017!